Breaking the Wilderness / The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, From the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway, With Particular Account of the Exploits of Trappers and Traders

by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh

Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.

On May 29, 1869, with four staunch boats built in Chicago, manned by nine men besides Powell, the party set forth on the swift current from Green River, Wyoming. They were soon deep in the fastnesses of the canyon wilderness where the plunging river roared defiance. As has before been mentioned Ashley had passed through Red Canyon, one of the first of the great gorges. Meek in winter on the ice had gone through Lodore and the gorges just below it, and a party of trappers had been wrecked in Lodore in attempting the descent. The latter made their way to Salt Lake, where they worked on the temple which the Mormons had begun. This canyon of Lodore had disaster in store for Powell too. One of the boats was wrecked, though fortunately not a man was injured; but the accident produced trouble, as Powell blamed some of the men for blundering, and they blamed him for failing to signal in time.

When they reached Wonsits Valley one of the men, Goodman, who was in the wreck, decided that he had had enough of this river and made his way across country to the Uinta Agency. The precipices soon closed in again to form the ninety-seven miles of the Canyon of Desolation,[114] immediately followed by thirty-six miles now called Gray Canyon before an opening occurred. This opening was Gunnison Valley, through which Wolfskill in 1830 had led the way, breaking the "Spanish Trail" to California. It is from this point downward for six hundred miles that no opening occurs in the cliffs that bound the river. They become higher or lower, slightly farther apart or nearer together, and there are lateral canyons and minor breaks, of course, but there is no valley along the river, and in places for miles on either side the surface of the country is only barren sandstone. The cliffs reach altitudes of three, four, and five thousand feet above the water of the river. In these great depths men are as completely shut away from the world as if they were in the very bowels of the globe.

Upper Part of Marble Canyon—Colorado River.

This gorge merges into the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the Little Colorado. The length of both together is about 300 miles. The first to travel this distance were Powell and his men, 1869.

After passing through Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons the Powell party found themselves at the mouth of Grand River, which entered the main stream in a canyon thirteen hundred feet deep, and they were at the same time in the head of another great gorge, later named Cataract Canyon. Any one who follows their trail will admit the appropriateness of this title. The length is forty-one miles, the walls reach an altitude of twenty-seven hundred feet at the highest, and in some of the bends are so straight as to give an impression of overhanging the spectator's head as he peers aloft from his boat to the sky so far above. At least that was the impression I received. The verticality of the rocks was greater to my eye here than at any other point. For some distance the declivity of the river bed is the sharpest on the whole course, and this with the narrowness of the canyon began to disturb Powell and lead him to fear that some of the stories of impassable falls might be true. Fortunately no insurmountable obstruction was encountered, and they swept triumphantly on through Narrow Canyon and Glen Canyon to the head of Marble, the real beginning of the greatest gorge of all, at the point where Jacob Hamblin crossed a month or two later in the same year, and which to-day is known as Lee Ferry.

Now there was before the party the greatest continuous chasm on the globe, Marble-Grand, almost three hundred miles in length as the river flows. Here they met with the hardest work and greatest danger. They became worn out; food grew scarce, for accidents and wetting had reduced too rapidly the original supply. Then it seemed as if they could not proceed, and the men who had been wrecked in Lodore were not reconciled. Another joined them and, discontented, the three refused to attempt a particularly bad rapid. They climbed to the plateau and were killed by the natives not far from Mount Dellenbaugh. The others, nerving themselves for a desperate struggle, passed the bad place, swept on through more, and emerged triumphant the next day, at noon, August 29, 1869, at the mouth of the Grand Wash, and the end of the Grand Canyon. The victory was won—the last problem of the Wilderness was broken!

From this point down the river was known. Jacob Hamblin with several others had passed from here by boat to Callville, and thence to the sea Ives had explored as already noted.